Yanks Beat Bucs

The Yankees improved to 10-7 for the spring with tonight's 12-9 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Phil Hughes got the start for the Yankees and had a second bad outing in a row. He didn't seem to be able to locate his fastball, which is what hurt him the last time out. Hughes gave up 7 runs, all earned, on 7 hits, 2 walks and 3 solo-home runs (R. Doumit, N. McLouth, C. Gomez). Hughes also struck out 3. Billy Traber had a shaky outing, going one inning and giving up 2 unearned runs on 1 hit, 1 walk and a wild pitch. Traber would have had a much easier inning, but was hurt by an Alex Rodriguez throwing error. Latroy Hawkins had a easy 1-2-3 inning, retiring two of the three batters he faced on ground balls. Kei Igawa didn't have an easy inning, but did retire the side without allowing a run. Igawa gave up a infield single to lead off the inning, former Yankee Doug Mientkiewicz then singled, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Igawa then got the next two, then walked a batter, and got a ground out to end the inning. According to one of this blog's readers (Derek) Igawa remains unscored upon when not wearing sunglasses. Ross Ohlendorf pitched a scoreless inning, he gave up one hit, and struck out one. His stuff looked very good tonight. Edwar Ramirez pitched the 9th and looked very good striking out two batters on nasty changeups.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Hughes	4.0	7	7	6	2	3	3	7.71
Traber (BS, 2)	1.0	1	2	0	1	0	0	0.00
Hawkins	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Igawa (W, 1-0)	1.0	2	0	0	1	1	0	3.38
Ohlendorf (H, 1)	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1.59
Ramirez (S, 1)	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	5.06

PIRATES PITCHING

The Yankees was in regular season form tonight smacking 17 hits on the night. Jorge Posada (3-for-4, HR, 3 RBI) had 3 hits including a 2-run HR off Pirates starter Matt Morris. Jason Giambi (2-for-3, 2 R), Bobby Abreu (2-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 R), Hideki Matsui (2-for-3, RBI), and Alex Rodriguez (2-for-4, 2B, RBI, R) each had 2 hits on the night. Derek Jeter (1-3, 2B, R, BB) had a double, and made a couple nice plays at short. Nick Green (1-for-1, HR) hit a 2-run HR in the 8th to give the Yankees an 11-9 lead. Chad Moeller (1-for-1, HR) followed with a solo HR to extend the lead to 12-9.

AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Gardner, B, CF 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 .393 Christian, CF 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 .231 Jeter, SS 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 .242 1-Gonzalez, PR-SS 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 .238 Abreu, RF 4 2 2 2 0 0 1 .467 2-Porter, PR-RF 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 .318 Rodriguez, A, 3B 4 1 2 1 0 1 1 .500 Green, 3B 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 .211 Giambi, 1B 3 2 2 0 0 1 2 .407 Ensberg, 1B 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .313 Posada, C 4 1 3 3 0 0 0 .241 Moeller, C 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 .200 Matsui, LF 3 0 2 1 0 0 2 .375 Lane, LF 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .250 Betemit, DH 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 .152 a-Brown, PH-DH 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .333 Ransom, 2B 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 .241 Castro, B, 2B 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 .200 Totals 42 12 17 12 4 4 17 a-Singled for Betemit in the 9th. 1-Ran for Jeter in the 6th. 2-Ran for Abreu in the 6th. BATTING 2B: Matsui (3, Morris), Jeter (3, Morris), Rodriguez, A (4, Morris). HR: Posada (1, 2nd inning off Morris, 1 on, 1 out), Green (1, 8th inning off Kim, 1 on, 1 out), Moeller (1, 8th inning off Kim, 0 on, 2 out). TB: Gardner, B; Jeter 2; Abreu 2; Porter; Rodriguez, A 3; Green 4; Giambi 2; Posada 6; Moeller 4; Matsui 3; Brown. RBI: Posada 3 (7), Abreu 2 (8), Rodriguez, A (8), Matsui (5), Betemit (5), Porter (5), Green 2 (4), Moeller (1). 2-out RBI: Posada; Moeller. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Ransom 2; Matsui 2; Castro, B. SF: Betemit. GIDP: Rodriguez, A. Team LOB: 8.

PIRATES HITTING

The Yankees will visit Knology Park in Dunedin, FL tomorrow afternoon when they take on the Blue Jays. Ian Kennedy gets the start for the Yankees and Kane Davis goes for the Jays. The game can be seen on YES, ESPN, and MLB.TV.